Sinead Lohan

August 2024 · 4 minute read

The mix of heartfelt love songs and cutting-edge production on Irish singer-songwriter Sinead Lohan's acclaimed American debut "No Mermaid" (Interscope) makes for a fetching and comforting listen.

The mix of heartfelt love songs and cutting-edge production on Irish singer-songwriter Sinead Lohan’s acclaimed American debut “No Mermaid” (Interscope) makes for a fetching and comforting listen. But when the 27-year-old translates her tender music into a mainstream rock act — as she did with only modest success at the near-capacity Hollywood Athletic Club, the finale of 11 cross-country dates — her prospects appear far less promising.

Performing much of the time in front of a too-loud band, Lohan (whose trademark long beaded hair was pulled back this night) sacrificed to the rock gods the elemental beauty of many of her confessional songs by way of an unsympathetic cast of otherwise able musicians.

Having far more in common, musically speaking, with Sarah McLachlan than the other, more intense Irish singing Sinead, Lohan laid bare her heart and soul on such choice numbers as the haunting “What Can Never Be,” where she sang, “In days I dream of you/nighttime hardly holds the key,” accompanied only by restrained keyboards and the tricky, minor-key arrangement of the breathy “Hot On Your Trail.”

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However, the majority of the 14-song set by the seven-months pregnant (“this isn’t Guinness and cheeseburgers,” she joked) and (at times) visibly nervous Lohan was spent competing with the band. But that’s a task neither Lohan, who is ultimately more effective playing in a solo acoustic setting, nor her delicate pop songs need undertake.

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Sinead Lohan

Hollywood Athletic Club; 700 capacity; $15.50 top

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